


courage (and peace of mind)

by mxgicxltrxgedy



Series: Small Town Newsies High School AU [4]
Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Fluff, Mutual Pining, Pre-Relationship, Slice of Life, Southern small town high school au, all of them can be read by themselves but share continuity so yeah, small town high school au, stand alone but exists in a universe of mine, they both just like the other so much but won't do anything about it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:35:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24453769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mxgicxltrxgedy/pseuds/mxgicxltrxgedy
Summary: Katherine and Sarah both happen to skip their respective class and meet up in the library and make plans for later.'She didn’t think she would ever be brave enough to tell Kath all these things, but at the moment, Sarah was alright with having small moments like these.'
Relationships: Sarah Jacobs/Katherine Plumber Pulitzer
Series: Small Town Newsies High School AU [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1743565
Kudos: 12





	courage (and peace of mind)

Katherine was sure her current predicament was what people mean when they talk about suffering. She’s sitting in the school library after managing to cleverly skip her yearbook class (just telling Mrs. A an elaborate lie that she believed instantly because Katherine was the one telling it) and her laptop is on the table in front of her. There were papers all around her, notes, outlines, old drafts of the thing currently in the word document in front of her.

Katherine was trying to work on a manuscript for a summer writing camp, an incredibly prestigious summer writing camp that would provide her thousands of dollars in scholarships if she were to get accepted into it, not to mention everything she would learn about writing while she was there. She really wanted to get in, and that made her rewrite every draft she’s written and think about what it would mean about her and her writing if she didn’t get in. 

Katherine has been doing her homework early so she had more time to work on the manuscript, and has been using her spare time in classes when she would be setting up a game of Rummy with Davey or messing around with Specs and Mush to have them read it and give her comments, or to just ignore all the conversation to keep her head stuck in her laptop. The only breaks she was giving herself was after school hangouts with her friends. Kath knows she needs the breaks on the occasion, so when Specs invites everyone to his basement for a movie night, or when Jack plans to have everyone go to the park for a few hours on a sunny day, she’ll take a break. School time wasn’t a break, however, so skipping yearbook to work in library didn’t make her feel _that_ bad (especially when she knew she wasn’t leaving Racetrack alone. He was also skipping yearbook to go to Spot’s English class for the period).

Katherine continued to read over the comments Specs gave her that day in English class. He wrote them on a separate sheet of paper, and in his scrawl, Katherine was making corrections where she saw fit or elaborating when needed. Right now, she had a line highlighted on her computer screen and is trying in every way to rearrange the words or find a different way to say what she means. Specs had left the comment that the line sounded weird, and as she was rereading it, she agreed, but trying to fix it has been her white whale of the day.

“Kath!” Katherine’s head shot up to the sound of her name. From the entrance of the library she saw Sarah coming her way with intention. She had a smile on her face and a textbook in her hand with her backpack slung over one of her shoulders. “Whatcha doin’?”

Sarah sat her bag down in the chair across from Katherine and plopped herself onto the table where all the papers were spread around. She sat the textbook in her lap and let her legs swing under the table, like she knew she was wanted without ever asking. Sarah was always wanted company for Katherine.

“I’m currently wishing for death. And to never see a Google Docs page ever again.” Katherine took a deep breath. “What about you, aren’t you supposed to be in class?” 

Sarah laughed. “Yeah, but we’re watching the ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ movie from the ‘50s and I was bored out of my mind, so I asked Mrs. Isaacs if I could leave to study for a test in AP Stats and she let me come to the library.”

“You’re not even in AP Stats.”

Katherine and Davey were the only one of their friends who were in the class, so she was sure Sarah wasn’t there. The rest of their friends had trigonometry or AP Calc (Race and Mush thought _that_ would be a good idea and now thoroughly hate themselves for that decision). 

“That’s what makes the fact that I managed to get out of class so much better!” Sarah moved her backpack to the chair over, then sat down in the seat across from Katherine. “Aren’t you supposed to be in class too?”

Katherine nodded. “Yeah, but I have nothing to do in there, and Race is usually with me, but he ditched me to go to Spot’s class. I think they’re watching a movie too.”

Sarah nodded, and pulled a notebook out of her bag. Katherine hadn’t seen her since their art class together this morning, but she never minded an intrusion by Sarah Jacobs. Sarah was never an intrusion, really. 

Katherine looked at the girl across from her and took her in for a moment. Sarah had her dark hair in a half updo, only keeping the front part of her hair out of her eyes. She was wearing a t-shirt, some design on the front Katherine didn’t recognize. She probably wasn’t working after school, because she tended to wear her work clothes to school if she had to (not like Sarah had a strict uniform, but she had to dress nicer than a t-shirt and jeans). She looked really comfortable, and pretty like she always did.

“Why are you wishing for death?” 

Katherine groaned, remembering the laptop in front of her and the highlighted sentence that was killing her afternoon. “This manuscript. Specs was reading it and said this sentence sounds weird, but I don’t know how to fix it.”

Katherine went back to looking at her word doc, but the words didn’t have any more meaning the longer she stared at them. They actually tended to lose meaning the longer she stared, but she didn’t know what else to do. Kath wished the deadline would come sooner so she wouldn’t have to play perfectionist everyday until she had to hand it in.

“Do you want me to look at it?” Katherine took her hands away from the laptop in resignation and moved her hands to pull her hair away from her face for a moment before letting it fall back down again. Sarah turned the laptop so she could read. 

Sarah had read about every version of the drafts that existed and helped come up with the ending to tie the entire thing together. Sarah was her go-to when reading what Katherine had written. Sarah had the perfect mix of content fixing and grammar fixing that was perfect for sound boarding and getting feedback. Davey was really good for finding all the grammar mistakes in her writing: when deciding whether or not to use passive voice or active voice for a sentence, using ellipses or a dash to indicate a pause, and other things, but he would always shrug in response to questions about what Katherine should say or what should happen. Race was good with conclusions and what should be said, but he had absolutely no idea on how to get there or how to word things. Sarah and Specs were the most help with the writing process.

Sarah read the sentence a few times, Katherine noticed her eyes move back and forth across the screen more than once. With a click on the mouse, she began typing then crunched her lips in thought, then typed again. She finished quickly then turned the computer around to Katherine.

“I don’t know if that sounds any better, or if that’s what you wanted to mean, but it’s something.”

Katherine read over the comment Sarah left on the sentence. It was… exactly what she needed.

Moving quickly to paste the comment onto the document itself, then highlighting and cutting what she had originally written. One thing settled. “Sarah Ruth Jacobs, you are a genius, and I owe you for three months for your kindness.”

“Please don’t middle name me.” Sarah laughed a little. “But you only owe me a Taco Bell order, that’s all my commission is.” 

“Okay, after school, let’s get Taco Bell.” Katherine offered. She knew Sarah was joking, but didn’t have any plans, and she suspected Sarah didn’t have any plans because it didn’t look like she was dressed for work. And, if Katherine could admit it to herself, she wanted to hang out with Sarah all the time- not just as a repayment for help. 

Sarah’s smart, and kind, and not to mention absolutely gorgeous. It was more than a crush at this point. Katherine wanted to sit next to her in the auditorium during assemblies and in Romeo’s car while they were on the way to Waffle House. Katherine wanted to hold her hand and be the one to take her out to the movies. Not that Katherine had the guts to do any of those things.

“I’m down. Do you want to do anything or just hang out?”

Katherine bit her lip. Sarah had her textbook out in front of her and her notebook out on an empty page. An idea popped into her head. “We could go to my house and make it a study date?” 

As soon as she said the words, she wished she had rephrased them. She didn’t mean to make it seem like she was asking Sarah on a date (even though she wouldn’t be opposed to going on a date with Sarah), but she wasn’t ready for Sarah to know about anything yet-

“Yeah, just chill out and do homework together.” Sarah closed her textbook in front of her. “Which means I don’t have to do this AP Environmental work right now.” 

If Sarah heard any other (more romantic) meaning, she didn’t let on. Katherine picked up and collected the papers she had spread out to put them all away: if Sarah was here, she probably wasn’t going to get a lot of work done anyway.

* * *

After exchanging shared car keys (Sarah took Kath to meet up with David to give him the keys to their car so that he could get home) and a small trip through the Taco Bell drive thru, Sarah and Kath were on their own in Kath’s bedroom.

Sarah always liked going over to Kath’s house, especially after school. Her younger half-brothers stayed after school for some sport, team, or other most days, and both Kath’s dad and her stepmom worked until the typical five o’clock, so normally they had the house to themselves until the rest of the family arrived home. 

Sarah felt comfortable enough to throw herself on Kath’s four poster bed, kick off her shoes, and pick up Kath’s little lion stuffed animal and hold it in her lap. She loved Kath’s room too. It was bigger than the one she shared with David at home, and it was full of little knick knacks, drawings, and pictures that Sarah loved to be nosy and look at- not that Kath ever minded.

Kath had flopped onto the bed beside Sarah, but immediately pulled out her laptop to work. Sarah suspected it was back to the manuscript. She cared so much about it, and Sarah knew that she’s been working on it for a while. 

Sarah pulled her notebook and her trig textbook out in front of her, but rather took to watch Kath while she worked. Her auburn hair was falling all over her shoulders, and she sat with her legs crossed, her laptop on her legs, and her back hunched to type. She had her eyebrows furrowed, and her fingers moving quickly over the mouse, reviewing her document with rapid speed.

She took the hand not on her mouse and pushed the hair away from her face, but it fell back easily. Kath never wore her hair up and always complained about it getting in her eyes. The only time she _ever_ wore her hair away from her face was when Sarah would braid it. Sarah didn’t mind playing with Kath’s hair. It was nice. It almost placated Kath, having Sarah sitting behind her and just running her fingers through her hair- root to tip, over and over again. It was like she turned into a cat.

Sarah always loved being with Kath like that. It felt like they were _together_ , in a way. Like intimate but also soft. Sarah always enjoys Kath and her presence; Sarah tries to spend all her time with her. Kath makes her heart feel held.

Sarah can’t remember exactly when she knew she liked Kath- like more than a friend. It must’ve been some time the year before, but Sarah was in the middle of her crush before she realized she had started liking her. Almost everything about Kath was added to the list of things that pulled Sarah in. She didn’t think she would ever be brave enough to tell Kath all these things, but at the moment, Sarah was alright with having small moments like these.

Kath started typing, almost furious, as if she were afraid the thoughts would leave if she didn’t get them down immediately. Sarah smiled. Kath’s passion stood out so plainly only people who didn’t know her at all couldn’t see it. Sarah loved being in on it, every part. From little drafts to reading the final submission; even being involved enough to be able to put in her two cents, it made Sarah really happy.

Kath did another swipe at her hair, just for it to fall back against her face.

“Do you want me to braid your hair?”

Kath looked up. “Yes please. If you don’t mind.”

Sarah just shook her head but got up from laying down to climb behind Kath. She checked to make sure she had a hair tie on her wrist then knelt behind Kath, starting to slowly rake her fingers through her hair. Sarah began to get out all the large tangles with her fingers, something she couldn’t do as easily with her own thick hair.

Very easily she began taking sections of hair and crossing one over the other, easily making a simple French braid and tying it off at the end. Sarah ran her hand across the braid, feeling for any loose hairs then, content with how the braid looked. tapped her hand on Kath’s shoulder. Kath turned her head to look at her and had a small smile on her face. 

“All done.”

Sarah went back down to her spot on the bed, and Kath’s eyes followed her down to it. Sarah looked back up at Kath, her hair now away from her eyes, with her baby hairs framing the sides of her face. Sarah took in the Katherine in front of her, and just how beautiful he is. 

Kath pursed her lips together, suppressing her smile. She definitely noticed Sarah looking at her. “What?”

“Nothing.”

Kath didn’t seem to believe that but went back to her computer anyway.

Maybe one day, Sarah will have the courage to do something about her liking Kath: telling her, asking her out, kissing her, but right now, seeing the stubborn baby hairs poke out along her hairline and how her eyebrows crinkle together when she begins another typing spree, Sarah thinks she’ll be content being able to see Kath like this.

**Author's Note:**

> I knew the Newsbians was coming, so here is what I have. It's weird for me as a WLW to write about my own experiences with liking women and having crushes on them, because I just don't have the same practice writing it (I mean, this is the first F/F writing in my works), which I should really fix. I'm going to get on that ASAP.
> 
> As always, if you want to find me on tumblr I'm @we-were-both-born-today, but I don't really post fic on there so, sorry in advance. 
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed it! (If you like it I have two Sprace and one Javid under this series if you want to read those too). 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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